The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, though this does not imply an endorsement.

The Church of England has encouraged its clergy to create baptism style ceremonies for transgender people to welcome them into the Anglican faith.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND OFFERS BAPTISMAL-STYLE CEREMONY FOR TRANSGENDERS (Friday Church News Notes, December 21, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Church of England,” CNSNews.com, Dec. 13, 2018: “Proving that it is constantly transforming with the times, the Church of England has announced it will now offer baptism-style ceremonies for transgender persons, people who deny their biological sex--e.g., a man who claims he is a woman--and want to be ‘re-baptized’ in their new sexual identity and new name. The Scripture teaches that God made us in His image, male and female, but the Church of England believes it can do better. The decision to offer the new ‘Affirmation of Baptismal Faith’ was decided by the House of Bishops in England on Monday, Dec. 3. ... [I]n the ceremony, ‘the minister lays their hands on the candidate or candidates, addresses them by name, and prays for them,’ reported The Telegraph. The Affirmation of Baptismal Faith enables people to ‘renew the commitments made in baptism and in a public setting and provides space for those who have undergone a major transition to re-dedicate their life to Jesus Christ,’ according to the bishops. Guidance for the Affirmation states, ‘For a trans person to be addressed liturgically by the minister for the first time by their chosen name may be a powerful moment in the service.’ The guidance also clarifies that ‘clergy are being told to call men by their new female names, and women by their new male names,’ reported LifeSiteNews. ... Dr. Paul R. McHugh, the former psychiatrist-in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital and its current Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry, said that transgenderism is a ‘mental disorder’ that merits treatment, that sex change is ‘biologically impossible,’ and that people who promote sexual reassignment surgery are collaborating with and promoting a mental disorder. ‘Sex change is biologically impossible,’ said McHugh. ‘People who undergo sex-reassignment surgery do not change from men to women or vice versa. Rather, they become feminized men or masculinized women. Claiming that this is a civil-rights matter and encouraging surgical intervention is in reality to collaborate with and promote a mental disorder.’”

LEADING COLLEGE FACULTY UNION SAYS BELIEF IN ONLY TWO GENDERS IS BASED ON “IDEOLOGY” (Friday Church News Notes, December 21, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Leading College Faculty,” Christian Post, Dec. 12, 2018: “One of America’s leading college faculty unions is decrying attempts to define gender as ‘binary,’ and claims that the Trump administration and the ‘religious fundamentalists’ who support such a definition are moved by ideology, not fact. The American Association of University Professors, which has 500 chapters and 39 state associations, released a statement last month titled ‘The Assault on Gender and Gender Studies.’ The statement, which was created by AAUP’s subcommittee of Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure and the Committee on Women in the Academic Profession, railed against the Trump administration for considering a plan to define gender as a ‘biological, immutable condition’ defined by a person’s sex at birth. The plan stoked fears that the word ‘transgender’ could be ‘defined out of existence.’ The AAUP statement also condemned Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for issuing a decree prohibiting gender studies courses from being taught in universities throughout the country. The statement also went after administrations in Poland, Brazil and Bulgaria for ‘attempts to refute the scholarly consensus that gender identity is variable and mutable.’ ... AAUP claims that those ‘authoritarian efforts’ lead to a justification of ‘racial, class, and sexual policing that disciplines forms of kinship and homemaking.’ ‘Politicians and religious fundamentalists are neither scientists nor scholars,’ the AAUP statement asserts. ‘Their motives are ideological. It is they who are offering “gender ideology” by attempting to override the insights of serious scholars. By substituting their ideology for years of assiduous research, they impose their will in the name of a science that is without factual support. This is a cynical invocation of science for purely political ends.’ ... Despite accusing politicians and religious fundamentalists of having ideological motives with no ‘factual support,’ AAUP failed in its statement to provide any sort of citation to the ‘biologists, anthropologists, historians, and psychologists’ it relies on to form its own argument. Although the AAUP statement wants to present politicians and religious fundamentalists as the main purveyor of the argument against beliefs in mutable gender, doctors and academics are also calling on the Trump administration to define gender as a ‘biological, immutable condition.’”

PROMINENT DOCTORS SIGN “PETITION TO UPHOLD THE SCIENTIFIC DEFINITION OF SEX IN FEDERAL LAW AND POLICY” (Friday Church News Notes, December 21, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Prominent medical doctors and other educators have signed a “Petition to Uphold the Scientific Definition of Sex in Federal Law and Policy.” It is addressed to the Trump administration. Following is an excerpt: “We, the undersigned medical, legal, and policy organizations and individuals applaud the Trump Administration’s intention to uphold the scientific definition of sex in federal law and policy, such that girls and women will regain their sex-based legal protections, and the human rights of all will be preserved. ... Not only is an expanded definition of sex unscientific, but it has also proven harmful, as we detail below. According to the Institute of Medicine, sex is a narrowly defined biological term. Sex is a biological trait that defines living things as male and female based on the complement of sex chromosomes and the presence of reproductive organs. ... Human sex is a binary, biologically determined, and immutable trait from conception forward. The norm for human design is to be conceived either male or female. Human sexuality is binary by design for the obvious purpose of the reproduction of our species. This principle is self-evident. ‘XY’ and ‘XX’ are genetic markers of male and female, respectively, and are found in every cell of the human body, including the brain. Sex is established at conception, declares itself in utero, and is acknowledged at birth. Sex differences are real and consequential. The Institute of Medicine recognized the singular importance of sex to health and the field of medicine nearly two decades ago. Sex chromosomes impart innate differences between men and women in literally every cell of our bodies. There are over 6500 shared genes that are expressed differently in human males and females. These differences impact our brains, organ systems, propensity for developing certain diseases, differential responses to drugs, toxins and pain, differential cognitive and emotional processes, behavior and more. ... In reality, an individual who identifies as transgender remains either a biological male or female. ... Sex is not a spectrum; congenital disorders are not additional sexes. The final result of sex development in humans is unambiguously male or female over 99.98 percent of the time. ... The use of congenital disorders to advance the myth that there are a multitude of human sexes which exist on a spectrum is ideological and political activism, not science.” The petition has been signed by the chief officers of the American College of Pediatricians (Michelle Cretella, M.D. and Quentin Van Meter, M.D.), as well as many other medical doctors, psychiatrists, and law professors.

THE FALSE CLAIM THAT UPHOLDING SCIENTIFIC DEFINITION OF SEX INCREASES SUICIDE AMONG TRANSGENDER (Friday Church News Notes, December 21, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Petition to Uphold the Scientific Definition of Sex in Federal Law and Policy,” www.ipetitions.com, Dec. 4, 2018: “The claim that upholding the scientific definition of sex will increase suicide among transgender identifying people is false. ... Sweden is a transgender affirming country that has adopted laws and policies conflating sex and gender-identity. Nevertheless, a study conducted by researchers there in 2011 found the rate of completed suicides among surgically ‘gender-affirmed’ adults to be 19 times greater than that of the general population (“Long-Term Follow-Up of Transsexual Persons Undergoing Sex Reassignment Surgery: Cohort Study in Sweden,” PloS One 6, 2011). Clearly, transgender affirmation does not prevent suicide, and may paradoxically worsen the emotional health of these individuals in the long term.”

A TIME IS COMING (Friday Church News Notes, December 21, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “What a long, dreary night with what frightful disturbing nightmares, if I may so speak, has this world known since sin, with all of its attendant evils, came in to wreck man’s hopes of joy and gladness! But how precious to know that evil shall not always have the upper hand; that a time is coming, aye, and is very near, when the curse will be lifted, the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the rose; even the lower creation will be changed and revert to former habits before sin entered, ‘the lion shall eat straw like the ox’ (Isaiah 11:7); the little child need not fear the most savage of beasts because they shall not hurt nor destroy in that day. Then government will be righteously regulated; abuses of every kind will be stopped, and for a thousand glorious years our Lord Himself shall reign in righteousness” (Harry A. Ironside).

CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:11-14).

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Distributed by Way of Life Literature., publisher of Bible Study Materials and reports for Fundamental Baptists and other fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians. Established in 1974, Way of Life Literature is a fundamental Baptist preaching and publishing ministry based in Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. Brother Cloud lives in South Asia where he has been a church planting missionary since 1979. OUR GOAL IN THIS PARTICULAR ASPECT OF OUR MINISTRY (REPORTS AND FRIDAY NEWS) IS NOT DEVOTIONAL. IS TO PROVIDE INFORMATION TO ASSIST PREACHERS IN THE PROTECTION OF THE CHURCHES IN THIS APOSTATE HOUR.David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.orgThe Way of Life Literature preaching and publishing ministry is based at Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. A mail stop is maintained in Port Huron, Michigan.

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